It has been 24 years since American Eagle Flight 4184 crashed in icy conditions late Halloween afternoon into a Newton County farm field, killing all on board, and scarring the land and the memories of locals.

Time since has erased — or at least eased — the memory of the doomed flight that claimed the lives of 64 passengers and four crew and haunted the recollections of residents and first responders who watched the disaster unfold in their quiet sparsely populated rural community.

Larry’s Restaurant, where locals gathered in the aftermath and shared their shock and grief with each other and media from around the country, is gone.

A constant, though, is the farmland — rows of corn and soybeans ready for harvest that stretch as far as the eye can see — and the roadside memorial near the crash site, a granite monument on the edge of those very fields.

Lincoln Township Volunteer Firefighter Ray Chambers, now director of the Newton County Emergency Management Agency, was among those who responded to the disaster scene that cold, icy night. His home at the time was just half a mile from the crash site.

His thoughts do not turn back often to what he saw and experienced that night, as a lieutenant with the department.

The ATR72, a twin-engine turboprop, had just made the 168-mile trip from Indianapolis to Chicago in known icing conditions and was in a holding pattern waiting for clearance to land when ice build-up on the wings caused the plane to roll and plummet into the ground at high speed, reports said.

The plane and its passengers were literally smashed into pieces and scattered outward from a small impact crater. There was no fire because there was nothing left to burn due to the totality of the destruction, eyewitnesses said. It took weeks for first responders like Chambers, who was among the first to arrive at the scene, to scour the scene for debris and human remains. He said he will never forget what he saw and lived through, but the experience has faded into the background.

“You kind of learn to live with it and go on,” Chambers said.

Nikki Hanger, Lake Township trustee, said she, too, will never forget that night. Hanger was just six months into her role as trustee, having been appointed to fill the seat that February. She remembers learning about the crash that day.

“I just remember I went over there to see what I could do to help,” Hanger said. She was not prepared for the devastation.

Carrie Napoleon / Post-Tribune

Crosses bear the names of some of the 68 victims of the Oct. 31, 1994, crash of American Eagle Flight 4184 at the site in Roselawn.

Crosses bear the names of some of the 68 victims of the Oct. 31, 1994, crash of American Eagle Flight 4184 at the site in Roselawn. (Carrie Napoleon / Post-Tribune)

Chambers said things changed a bit after the 20th anniversary of the crash, when the granite roadside monument was installed at the site, replacing the 68 white wooden crosses placed by volunteers shortly after the crash. For many, the memorial marked the end of a journey that turned some family members into advocates after officials failed to provide information to victims’ families in a timely fashion and quietly buried some remains found at the scene without family members’ knowledge.

Those efforts stemming from the botched handling of the crash aftermath by aviation officials helped secure the passage of the Aviation Disaster Family Assistance Act of 1996, which guarantees victims’ families are promptly informed of developments in crashes.

“I sat there at the 20-year anniversary and met several individuals with family. Basically, they are content the 20-year anniversary was the end of everything for them. These families worked tremendously hard for 20 years,” he said.

“The last few years have been pretty quiet,” Chambers said. People used to bring their children to the firehouse after visiting the memorial to ask questions. That has not happened in quite some time, he said.

“I don’t really know if anybody comes to the site anymore,” Chambers said.

Bouquets of flowers were placed under two of the names over the weekend. The flowers had labels from different shops. An ear of dried grain corn was placed by another, a clear indicator not everyone has ceased to visit.

Chambers expects the 25th anniversary of the crash in the 2019 to draw people out again though he is not aware of any formal plans at the memorial yet.